Carolingian minuscule

Carolingian minuscule, in calligraphy, clear and manageable script that was established by the educational reforms of Charlemagne in the latter part of the 8th and early 9th centuries. As rediscovered and refined in the Italian Renaissance by the humanists, the script survives as the basis of the present-day Roman upper- and lowercase type.

Carolingian minuscule script from the Gospels of Lothair written at Tours, France, c. 850; in …

Courtesy of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

A learned English cleric, Alcuin of York, was invited in 781 by Charlemagne to become master of the palace school at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). He returned to England in 786 and again in 790, but he eventually retired as abbot of St. Martin’s at Tours, where he built up a monastic school and gathered many books. He is credited with Roman Catholic liturgical reforms and with the promotion of Carolingian minuscule as the official court hand.

The crowning achievement of the Tours school of scholars, Carolingian minuscule scribes, and artists was attained in the mid-9th century in the Gospels of Lothair, produced by Alcuin’s successors.

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